What you won't get to see, Bell reiterated, is how Jigsaw somehow escaped death at the end of "Saw III" — because, the 64-year-old actor insisted, he most certainly did not (see " 'Saw IV' Masterminds Piece Together Jigsaw's Puzzling Return"). How, then, is it that Bell is stepping into the shoes of the sadistic monster again?

"Well, in the West we consider death to be the final chapter, but there are many cultures around the world where death is just a moment in the journey," Bell contended. "So you may know how I died in 'Saw III,' but that doesn't mean you'll understand the rest of how I lived."

Which, finally, is what audiences can expect to find out in "Saw IV," Bell revealed, teasing that we'll see "the turning point, the thing that catapults him into doing what he does."

Meaning, of course, that we haven't seen it already. So what about all that talk in the first "Saw" about how an illness forced Jigsaw to revalue his life and how it led him to torture and manipulate people?

"Yeah, a lot of people think that it was the illness that catapulted him into [torture]. In my view, it was never the illness," Bell asserted. "The illness was one of 35 different things that were eating at him that he felt strongly about. So that's what this story ['Saw IV'] is — what are the other motivating factors that helped him take the journey?"

According to Bell, fans can expect a fair share of flashbacks to help explain what those factors are. Could it be, we wondered, a beauty that helped make this beast?

"I hope so," Bell coyly said.

Whatever it is, bet on it fitting right in with the "Saw" mythos, said Bell — a little bit of revision that snaps perfectly into what we already know, like it was meant to be there all along.

"I think one of the things that fans like about 'Saw' is that it doesn't play out in a linear fashion. It plays out almost like a puzzle," Bell asserted. "Like when you put a puzzle together, the lower right-hand corner happens, then the upper left-hand corner happens. I like the 'Saw' story because I like filling in the pieces as we go."